The present invention relates generally to a medical manipulator that is inserted into the body cavity and used for applying treatments to various tissues in it.
So far there has been a medical manipulator system known as an operation support system, the manipulator system comprising a master manipulator manipulated by an operator and a slave manipulator adapted to implement treatment based on manipulation of the master manipulation.
In surgical operation using such a medical manipulator system, an endoscope, a manipulator (or forceps) or the like are inserted into the abdomen or the like of a patient through some small holes so that the operator can implement operation while viewing images from the endoscope through a monitor. Such laparoscopic surgery is now expected to be applicable to a wider range of fields, because it is less invasive due to no need for opening up the abdomen, and because of some considerable reductions in the number of days taken by the time of post-operative recuperation and until the patient is discharged out of hospital.
For instance, Patent Publication 1 (JP(A) 2010-253162) discloses such a system comprising a manually manipulated joystick, a robot arm that is electrically driven in association with movement of the joystick, a trigger lever that is formed integrally with the joystick and manually manipulated to advance or retract a first wire, and a manipulator mounted to the tip of the robot arm.